Delhi witnessed the launch of Sports literacy Mission, by an NGO named 'Sports: A Way of life', on August 22, at the Indian habitat centre. The event was marked by the presence of Dr Ajay Shankar Pandey, IAS and OSD to Governor of Rajasthan, 20 Arjuna Award winners, Olympians and Dronacharya Award winners from various sports.
Speaking on the occasion, Kanishka Pandey, founder of the NGO and a budding writer, said that 'Sports: A way of life', recently conducted a survey to know the public mood and their active participation in various games and the survey came out with an eye opener conclusion. "This survey conclusively establishes that our country has more or less poor sports literacy. This is also a pointer as to why we are lagging behind in medal tally despite having such a vast population," said Kanishka.
Talking about the NGO, he said, "Our NGO's main objective is to promote the Gurukul tradition of education, where education and sports moved hand in hand."
Ashok Kumar, renowned hockey player and son of the legend Dhyan Chand, graced the occasion by his presence. Converging the attention towards the present condition of Indian hockey, he said, "Despite of spending hefty amount on sports, the country is not getting back as much as it deserves. Blaming government for every other thing is not a solution here. The need of the time is the improvement at basic levels. Educational institutions as well as parents should understand the importance of sports and promote it right from the beginning."
Kumar finds the distribution of national awards for such minor achievements as futile. Commenting on the same, he said "Giving away 34 awards in a year does not make sense. A National award is a prestigious honour and should be given only to the one who truly deserves it."
Whereas addressing the deteriorating condition of sports in India, Sriram, another epitome in the field of sports said, "We have a lot of talent within our country which needs to be moulded. If we start working a bit on our sport science and shift our focus from hiring international coach to promoting the ones from India, we will see improvements in near future for sure."
Amidst the discussions, Kanishka Pandey gave a call to all the retired players to encourage those children who have been deprived of playing any game and provide them with training, so that post retirement they get a means of keeping their sports life intact.